ESPN broadcaster's lawyer criticizes hotel

October 05, 2009

The attorney for ESPN reporter Erin Andrews criticized management at a hotel where prosecutors allege a Westmont man altered a peephole to take nude videos of the celebrity, saying today that not only was the man booked in a room next to Andrews' at his request but that the rooms were in an alcove removed from the main hallway.

Grossman said Andrews was "gratified" that Michael David Barrett, 47, had been charged with one count of interstate stalking using harassing and intimidating surveillance, but he questioned the hotel's attention to privacy and security.

In a 35-page criminal complaint filed Friday, FBI investigators allege that Barrett, an insurance salesman, contacted the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University and specifically requested a room next to Andrews, who was there in September 2008 to report for ESPN.

The complaint says hotel computer records of Barrett's reservation show a notation, "GST RQST TO RM NXT TO (Andrews)."

(To read the criminal complaint and a supporting FBI affidavit in the case click HERE.)

Grossman said the hotel granted Barrett's request and gave him and Andrews "rooms at the end of the hall, in an alcove, where anyone would be free to do just about whatever they wanted to do in complete privacy," decisions that he said would "likely serve as a casebook study on poor hotel management."

The complaint confirms Barrett and Andrews' rooms were adjacent in an alcove.

It indicates someone used a cell-phone camera to record Andrews after removing the door's peephole and altering it with a hacksaw.

Authorities allege Barrett called 14 hotels in Milwaukee in July 2008 to determine where Andrews was staying while she covered a Major League Baseball game.

Police say Barrett discovered Andrews would be at the Radisson Airport Hotel, where he later booked a room.

The complaint says Barrett didn't check into the hotel, but investigators found a similarly altered peephole in the room where Andrews stayed.

Radisson representatives were unavailable Sunday, and Marriott spokesman John Wolf said the company's only comment would be a prepared statement.

"The security and privacy of our guests is a priority," Wolf read, adding that Marriott has cooperated in the investigation.